That New Vista Build

Today was a predictably tiring day, and I'm really dreading the next 7 or 8 days of my life. In addition to a scavenger hunt for ACM this weekend and Texas Revue tryouts being next Saturday, I have three tests next week in addition to homework for most of my classes being due. Alright, that ends my rant, now on to the good stuff. Dl.tv put up a new video podcast today (which is bi-daily), and in it they showcase the latest build of the Windows Vista beta. Once again, I have to comment on how similar to Mac OS X some of these new features are. I have to talk about one of their original (as far as my knowledge of other OSes go, at least) additions though: added parental control. I stand skeptical on parental controls, partially because parents can be too harsh and partially because it will end up making the kid more curious, but after seeing the effects of technology on my spoiled little cousin, I can't help but endorse it. Not only can you restrict what they can navigate to online (through a number of very specific checkboxes), but you can also specify the times they can go online (with striking similarities to uTorrent's scheduler), the programs they can use, and the regular user privileges as well. The other stuff that they showed off wasn't all that impressive, and the presence of Windows Defender was very confusing as I'm almost positive that they said a couple of weeks ago that no anti-virus software would be packaged with Vista.

It turns out that the Playstation 3 will not have a built-in hard drive, which is the official word from Sony's PS3 specs. A hard-drive will be sold separately, but I wonder how they'll fit a dock in there for it. Oh well, it's still just a prototype. Google has been working on a web application to glean web statistics specifically for blogs, which sounds pretty cool because I currently use Statcounter and while I think it's great it's definitely targeted more towards full-blown websites. I signed up to get an invite to use it, so I'll report back if I get one. If you've wondered how Newegg works, AnandTech got an inside look at a factory where all the magic happens, and it's actually cooler than you may think. They even use an algorithm to sort the products on their shelves so that it can stored in the most efficient way. Lastly, if you've been exposed to a lot of programming myths, you should check out this list of facts separated from fiction, such as the debatability of programming style.

I've got to go pretty soon, so I'm going to have to rush through today's massive amount of movie news. To your right is the French poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which actually looks pretty good. If you just can't get enough of the Bourne Identity series, then you'll be happy to know that there may be two more on the way if Matt Damon agrees to do them. I personally think that it's pushing the franchise too far and will leave a bitter taste in people's mouths. There's a trailer up for The Break-Up (Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston), which actually looks like it may be a funny movie. IGN has some behind-the-scenes footage for The Hills Have Eyes, which all you horror geeks will be interested in. The rest of us will prefer to watch a new entry in the video blog for Clerks 2 about 360 degree angle shots. The Casino Royale villain has been officially cast as a near-no-name Danish actor (Mads Mikkelsen), which I felt was a strange choice. So they won't let Tarantino direct, but they'll pull in random actors? The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats have now been delayed to the point of almost simultaneous release as the AACS standard has been delayed by a month, which complicates matters greatly for HD-DVD (who were prepared to launch very soon). Lastly, there's now a new TV spot for Mission Impossible: 3, and it may not have new footage, but it can still get you pretty pumped for it.

I'll go with a quickie Wednesday Mind Hump today:

1. Valentine's Day - love it, like it, tolerate it or hate it?
I tolerate it, but I haven't had much reason to love it in the past. In elementary school we would exchange those cheap little cards, but my mom made me feel guilty about making her go through the hassle of buying the stuff for them, and I never found them all that worthwhile since I wasn't a very popular/cool kid at all.

2. Who or what is on your "love list" right now?
24 is right up there as is sleep and guitar (as always). As for girls: give me some breathing room here!

3. What does your own personal candy heart say?
Love is not fleeting.

4. Will you be my valentine next year? If you're a guy, just say which female celebrity you want to be your valentine next year.
I'm going to go with Jessica Alba, because it may be impossible to be hotter than her.